"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes…"

"I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and a sword in my hands."

"It is the curse of the black race to be forever looking backward, forever remembering."

"All my life, I have been a black woman. I have never been anything else."

"It seems to me that the human race is like a lot of children playing in a nursery, and the grown-ups are not coming."